Welfare To Work Programme In Chaos

The Government’s welfare to work programme is in chaos, as new figures show a sharp rise in the number of households where no one has ever worked.

The number of households where no one has ever worked rose sharply in the last quarter of 2011 to 291,000 - a rise of over 7% on the year before. House of Commons Library research shows the Government is now set to splurge an incredible £9 billion more than planned on dole payments and housing benefits.

Recent revelations include the unemployment minister being forced to admit that some government contractors may leave the troubled Work Programme, despite him claiming to be ‘relaxed’ about it. The Programme has been hit by allegations of fraud at some of the contractors, whilst the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that botched council tax benefit changes will ‘severely undermine’ the new Universal Credit set to be introduced in just over a year’s time.

A year after the Government’s Work Programme started, we’ve seen the number of people out of work in the Rother Valley go up by 7.5%. Now we learn the number of households where someone has never worked has hit an all time high. This is fresh proof that the Government's welfare to work reforms are in disarray.